Blue Ribbon Campaign Helps Fight Child Abuse

Every 24 hours, three children in America die from being physically abused. The majority of these victims don't live to see their first birthdays.

This statistic and the problem it represents is the focus of what the Virginia Coalition for Child Abuse Prevention is calling its Blue Ribbon Community Action campaign.

This month, the coalition began what will be a two-year effort to educate the American public about child abuse, why it occurs and how it can be stopped.

Over the last four years, the number of child deaths from abuse and neglect has doubled in Virginia. In 1986, 14 youngsters were victims of fatal child abuse. By 1989, that number had risen to 34, according to statistics released by the state Department for Children.

The statewide Blue Ribbon campaign was inspired by the actions of a Hampton Roads woman whose grandson is now a child-abuse fatality statistic.

Bonney Finney of Portsmouth first came to grips with what was being done to her grandson while she sat beside his hospital bed.

"Bubba" was admitted to Chesapeake General Hospital on Oct. 12, 1988, to wait for surgery on his crushed genitals. The 3-year-old boy also had cigarette burns on the palms of his hands.

In a letter to child protection advocates, Finney tells her story:

"Of course, I knew something was wrong as I sat there. I saw fear on his face, the bruises on his body, and the healing cigarette burns on his hands."

She continued that her grandson's doctor did not believe her daughter's story about the child falling into a slippery bathtub. "I felt sick ... I didn't understand ... Are my grandchildren all right?"

After a stay in the hospital, her grandson was placed into a foster home by Portsmouth Social Services. After three weeks, Bubba was returned to the home his mother shared with her boyfriend.

Finney never saw her grandson again. In March of 1989, she and her husband learned that Bubba "had been killed, wrapped in a sheet, stuffed in a tool box and dumped into the Dismal Swamp."

This tragedy spurred her to tie a blue ribbon onto the antenna of her van. The symbolic gesture made people wonder, says Finney. The color blue constantly reminds her "to fight for protection for our children."

In December 1989, the mother's boyfriend pleaded guilty to the November 1988 beating death of Bubba; during his trial he continued to maintain that he did not kill the boy. In February, the mother pleaded guilty to child neglect two days before her trial was scheduled.

According to the National Committee for the Prevention of Child Abuse, programs targeted at parents before they become abusive or neglectful reduce the likelihood for future maltreatment. This belief is echoed by a representative of the Newport News Child Advocacy Team.

"Our goal is to promote prevention of child abuse through public education and awareness; helping families involved in child abuse so the problem will not be passed from generation to generation," says Carol Tighe of the advocacy group.

Child abuse is definitely a problem, Tighe says. A therapist specializing in helping families, individuals and abusive couples, she has offices in the Denbigh section of Newport News.

By treating the abused and the abuser, she is providing prevention education. "A treated person might not pass the problem on to another person," she says.

Breaking the cycle of violence is necessary when a family has a history of child or spousal abuse. Child abuse victims often repeat the violent acts that they experienced on their own children, says Deborah Daro, director of research for the committee.

Although some victims can overcome the scars of their abuse, child-abuse victims are six time more likely to become abusive parents than non-abused children, she says.

Being abusive is a learned reaction. "Part of the reason why people abuse children is because they don't have good coping skills. They aren't handling stress and frustration in their lives," explains Tighe.

She says that "most of us learn how to parent from our parents. We learn to be violent from "the street, television and in the home."

For more information on National Child Abuse Prevention month or the state's Blue Ribbon Community Action campaign, contact the Hampton Roads Committe for the Prevention of Child Abuse, 440-2749.